I was working on mock-ups for Amir, the winner of the free cover design contest, when it occurred to me that I should go ahead and create a cover for my sequel, even before it’s finished. That way I can do the same thing that Amir is planning on doing – pin the cover over my desk and use it as the motivation to finish the draft. Also, you guys were amazing in helping me develop the cover for the first book, so I feel comfortable revealing the rough draft and asking you for comments.

So here it is, the mock up for the second installment in Isa Maxwell’s escapades:

This is very rough, with images I have not yet bought, so that’s why the resolution is bad and there are some remnants of Shutterstock watermark – that will improve once I buy and download full-size images. I would love for you to comment on:

Title of the book. Isa continues to be…let’s say “naive” in India, hence the “Indiot”.

The overall concept for the cover.

Using “diamonds” for title.

Making “N” in the title different. I will make it look like empty settings, from which diamonds have been stolen.

Should I put “Isa Maxwell’s escapades” on the title? I kinda like the minimalistic look and that the covers are not too matchy, but everyone seems to love series covers that look like versions of the same and tell you exactly which book in the series it is…

80 responses to “Sequel to Shizzle, Inc – title and cover mock up reveal!”

Honestly, I like the cover without anything other than your name and Indiot with the n as you said. The blurb on the back of the book or the blurb will explain enough. The title begs the question: What is this book about? Who is an idiot? What is she an idiot about? Is she in India? Is she from India and going somewhere else? Those are enough questions to get a browsing reader interested, in my opinion. Less is definitely more. 🙂 Happy designing.

I really like so many things about this cover. The diamonds are great, the empty settings on the N are great, and I think the title is pretty perfect. “Isa Maxwell’s escapades” doesn’t sing that well to me, but I think you are right to think about finding a way to make an easier connection to the series and I’m thinking that’s a good way to cram in some Amazon keywords, which will make the book a little more visible. Of course, I’m still in the learning and ramping up phase of this myself and you have a lot more experience, but those are my thoughts.

Thank you – I kind of wanted that, to explain the “idiot in India”…wanted to get first impressions from people on whether it was fun or offensive. Or boring – God, I’d rather be offensive than boring 🙂

The white diamonds stand out great, but you’re right, not the “N”…I will check it when I’m doing the “real” thing…what if it at he’s someone’s interest enough to click through and find out what is going on with the title? Wishful thinking …:-) my firs tide was to make them look embroidered into the design, and that was getting lost.

Thank you, Tony – the debate with herself is a great idea! I have a lot of fun with her inner dialogue 🙂
Indiot being short and funky was the one similarity I thought it has with Shizzle – short, funny word that’s catchy but doesn’t explain what’s inside… Or did you mean to add a subtitle?

You need series info on cover for keyword analytics. All info on cover is included in the keywords, so it’s extra keywords to drive readers to your book. And readers need to know it is part of a series without opening it.

Good point! When I put in Shizzle, Inc, the cover did not have a subtitle, but I did put “Isa Maxwell Escapades” in the subtitle field, and Book 1 in another. So it shows up with all that info in searches – do you think it’s sufficient?

I don’t know. What do people actually look at? The cover, we hope. How many times does a person have to be exposed to a message to retain it? Experts say 5 times. Is the cover going to be one of those 5 times? In my mind, cover art is first and foremost about marketing. I want mine to pop so the the potential reader will stop, read the info on the cover and then click. On the first book, series info only speaks to the future. On every other book, if enables the reader to place the particular book in context and we hope they go “This looks great. It’s book four. I should start with the first one.” The problem is that in thumbnail size, cover writing is barely readable and may make the cover look messy or dark. So there’s a tradeoff in terms of the amount of writing or small images that can be placed on a cover. On the cover to my second book, The Computer Heist,(on my website) I’ve got a lot of writing, but I think it scales pretty well. Anyway, those are my thoughts.

I like the way you did the title, the one thing that bugs me is the eyes. They look a little weird, maybe too photoshopped. It might be the shadowing or that they’re slightly different shades of blue, but something looks off to me. Otherwise, love the colors and the design!

I have no skill for visual things, although I’ve read something to the effect of what Michael mentions, that if keywords are used in the title itself and appear in the cover that makes it more searchable. From my personal experience with a series of linked stories I published once, even adding in the title the number and a subtitle, people didn’t pick it up. So making clear that’s the sequel to Shizzle, Inc. (maybe adding that somewhere) could make a difference, especially as you have quite a few readers already. 🙂

Thank you, Olga – I will need to work on that, as I must admit, fonts and title lettering in general are the hardest for me right now. Will have a couple of options for my next version – and thank you again for providing input! Honestly, can’t imagine doing all this “in the dark”, without feedback…

Got it, no probs! I’m typing on the phone and I think (at 43) my eyes are starting to give out, so please forgive me if I’ve made any oops idea in the past or will make any in the future…:-) or maybe I get glasses, dang it…

I like how you’ve made this cover similar enough to convey that they are both part of the same series, but the overall look didn’t make me think of India. It actually made me think you were superimposing her head on a medieval portrait, and the title, while sparkly, confused me. I am glad you explained what Indiot stood for otherwise I might not have gotten it. But, I will say that now that I do know what you were going for, I do like the fact the N is a different color than the rest.

I do love the minimalistic look, but as a reader, it is nice to be able to glance at a cover and see that it is book 2 in a series so that I know I am purchasing the next book or starting the series with the right book.

The cover grabs my attention, it just doesn’t give me a clear idea about what the book is about. Shizzle’s cover was much clearer with the business suit on the bottom. I think a subtitle would help a reader if they were picking this up and hadn’t already seen your first.

I like the play on words you’re successfully pulling off with the “N” being darker! Great idea! I think you should have a little subtitle, just below the title. I think it will help tie it in to the original book and set it apart as a series! The common thread is seeing the image of the blond gal!

“Thanks again, Tamara 🙂 I was also thinking of adding a texture of another photo to the top part – it does look like a background of a stock photo atm…”

That’s a good point! There’s the veil in front of her with the cute texture on the fabric which definitely evokes a feeling that her experiences in India are a new overlay on her as a person.

The background texture could be a subtle use of the same little flourish, which could imply she is caught up within the new culture, or you could use a texture to evoke a feeling of where she originally came from which could then show a) her past and b) that she’d feeling caught between the two cultures?

I’m not quite sure I see where you’d be going with that, since I can picture a couple of different scenarios… the one I’m seeing is a couple (or three, just to have an odd number for dynamism!) red toned exposures with say a 40-50% transparency in the background behind her… could look dreamlike… is that something that would fit? You’d definitely have to play with around with your ideas!

Of course if you get some cool, artistic images going, you could upload them to Fine Art America for sale if they don’t make the cut for a front cover!! LOL

I’m going to be the minority here, but at first glance, I saw Idiot on Twitter and then Indiot, which would be taken offensively and thus turn me off from buying it. Clueless in India might be something I’d figure out after reading the blurb but with a cover like this, I wouldn’t make it to the blurb and just pass and look at other books. I love your first cover – that was genius – this one, I had no idea it was a sari or veil she’s holding till I looked closer on your blog, but again, first glance on Amazon, with the size of the covers they feature on my webpage and worse, on my phone, I’d see Idiot and move on.

Hi Liz! Thank you for that – I was worried it might be jarring or offensive, so the feedback is very helpful. Is it offensive in general, or because it involves a reference to India? At this point I’m glad the majority found it funny and will take the plunge – if Lady Gaga taught us anything, it’s better to be offensive than safe. I’ll just have to wear my “meat dress” and hope for the best…

I come from the Philippines and so colonizers have called us “indios” for having dark skin (among other things) and maybe that’s why it jumped out at me right away – so maybe it’s a cultural and regional thing, and if so, then I might not be the target audience for the book anyway. It’s one thing to be offensive but I think you also need to be careful about the novel being tagged as racist because while the story is referencing misadventures of her stay in India, at first glance, it doesn’t look that way (idiot and india a play on words) – at least to me, someone who is not Caucasian. At the same time, it could be a viral thing for you and sell you thousands of books.

Thank you, Liz – I’m definitely not making fun of Indians, although she befriends an old Indian guy who is quite a character. It does make me nervous, but at the same time I hope people will see it for what it is – a bizarre comedy. Racist would be if she was painted as superior to Indians, which she is not…but then again, anyone could take offence to anything. I chose her to be blonde, which is a cliche, I was worried at first someone would grill me for it. Instead I got grilled for her not getting more of a punishment in the end. One thing I’ve learned, it’s impossible to write a book everyone will like…

I like the design very much. I didn’t understand the title because I haven’t been able to finish the book yet but the play on words caught my eye and made me think idiot of course. The top background would look great if you could use the red leather with gold leaf over lay. Or just the red leather look to tie it to the first cover in a subtle way. For Amazon I’d only worry about putting Isa Maxwell series into the written info next to the cover because the picture is to small for anything else. On the paperback put it on the back cover and the spine to connect the books. I like it with just Indiot on the cover. It looks great in rough draft can’t wait for the final cover. I wish you could teach me how you do your covers. Is there something I could get a program to learn how? I love art always painted and drew by hand never did design work on the computer but I want to learn. I’ve heard it’s hard but I’m a perfectionist ,too. I like taking photos but I don’t touch mine up on the computer always felt like it was cheating. I love to take nature shots. Have a bunch of them. This cover will be easier than the first since you know what has to be done. It’ll be perfect as the first! Don’t work too hard.

Thank you, Olivia – I will be working on it over the weekend. I use Photoshop and you can get a free month trial (Google Adobe Photoshop). There are tons of youtube tutorials, I’ve learned the basics years ago, but I use tutorials to do fancy stuff. Google “photoshop double exposure” for some examples of the cool things you can do 🙂

PS Olivia: If you decide you like Photoshop you can “lease” just that one for $9.99 a month. Way cheaper than buying! The only thing is, if you discontinue your membership and stop paying then you can’t use the software anymore and any libraries of colors and textures go away!

I use it under this plan since I’ll frequently use it to prepare photos for my blog and to upload to Fine Art America (which is a print on demand site for selling reproductions of artwork and photos.)

By the way, since you are in India, I would love to ask you to be my beta-reader (if you are interested, of course). The story is a “fish out of water” one of an idiot girl in India, and I myself have never been there, so would love to make sure that its not offensive. Let me know!

Love the picture!! I thought India Idiot sounded good as a title. But with some creativity, you could make the letters INDIOT shine with the diamonds. The diamonds taken away are harder to read. I don’t know if you are using a special font for this, but could it be fixed by outlining the letters in a color (gold) ? Love the picture!!

Thank you for visiting my author site yesterday! Seeing your site has been an inspiration and very helpful to me. I’m just getting started with marketing (and learning as I go), but thanks to your helpful blog I feel I have a bit of a jump now.

I love the new cover! I do think you probably need to put a subtitle to let readers know that it’s part of a series, but you could probably do that in a small font that doesn’t detract from the overall effect.